Pewaukee man charged with voter fraud

Village of Pewaukee - Karl Reinelt, A 51-year-old felon, was charged Jan. 17 in Waukesha County Circuit Court with one count of election fraud after allegedly voting in the Nov. 6, 2012, election.

The vote was first reported the day after the election by Clerk-Treasurer Nancy Zastrow. She said she first noticed the mistake when comparing the new registrants sheets with the Government Accountability Board's list of convicted felons.

She said the mistake should have been caught when Reinelt tried to vote, but the poll workers were busy and must not have cross-checked his registration. The vote could be thrown out if it were challenged, but Zastrow said that would be difficult to do because of the anonymity of the voting process.

"It could be a really big deal if it was a close race," Zastrow said, such as the 2011 Supreme Court race between Supreme Court Justice David Prosser Jr. and Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. "But in this case, I don't see them making us do something with the numbers."

Reinelt was convicted early last year of four felony counts of failure to pay child support in Milwaukee County Circuit Court and was on court-ordered probationary supervision. Under state law, felons are disqualified from voting until they complete their term of imprisonment or probation.

The articles makes no implication of his political affiliation, but he did not sign the recall petition. He has quite an extensive record on CCAP. Also, voter ID wouldn't have prevented him.